This week’s little gratitude list is going to be short and sweet. I’m working at the hospital today, having just gotten back from a few days with the fam. This was a nice, mellow Christmas for us, and I had a lot of opportunities to look around and be grateful for a lot of little things.

Like this guy. 

Eli has had a little trouble with housebreaking out in the ‘burbs, and has been confused about the whole inside-tree thing. We found out Christmas morning that he’d been peeing on the tree. Because my family is the way we are, we had a good laugh about Eli peeing all on Christmas. Everyone agrees that he is totally my dog in this respect. I guess as the black-coffee-drinking, bah-humbug, “a good man is hard to find” New Yorker in the family, I get it.

It was also really nice to spend some time with my parents and sister. And my extended family. Their gifts were both incredibly thoughtful and, at times, hilarious in their thoughtfulness. For example, my mom hooked me up with several bottles of my favorite hand sanitizer: 

This is the perfect gift for that special hypochondriac in your life.

I also kind of love that I’ve become that person with the thing about feathers. This gorgeous ring from my aunt & uncle looked like someone had made it with me in mind: 

(It probably says quite a bit about my fluency in New Jersey French Sign Language that my middle finger is the one I choose to accent with jewelry)

I am also soooo grateful for dark chocolate. These truffles from Lake Champlain were the bomb. 

That right there is why my holiday food recaps do not feature any “real” dessert—I was way too busy enjoying these. So damn good. I can’t believe there was a time in my life when I didn’t like chocolate. Good thing I outgrew that one. I was seriously missing out.

Hope you had a great weekend!

What’s brought you joy recently?